Meaningful use

Changes ahead for meaningful use

On April 11, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the proposed rule, Electronic Health Record Incentive Program—Modifications to Meaningful Use in 2015 Through 2017. This rule proposes significant changes to the meaningful use (MU) program, including changing the reporting period to 90 days in 2015 as well as removing several core and menu set measures from the program and reducing the reporting thresholds for other measures.

Based on the changes outlined below, the AAD recommends that members reconsider MU activities, especially those that may be labor-intensive or costly, while we await the final rule from CMS. Once the final rule is released in August, the AAD will announce the finalized changes to the program on its website. Physicians will most likely report for a 90-day period after that time with attestation to occur in early 2016. For additional questions, please contact hit@aad.org.

The list below contains some of the more significant proposed changes to MU:

Stage 1 would be eliminated from the program and all participants would be required to report either Stage 2 or a modified Stage 2 set of measures.

There are 9 core objectives and 1 public health objective for Stage 2 or the modified Stage 2 set:

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the economic stimulus package, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act created incentives for eligible dermatology practices for implementation and meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) and e-prescribing (eRx) technologies.

In an effort to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency through the promotion of health IT (HIT), the HITECH Act allows qualifying dermatology practices — that participate in Medicare and Medicaid — to be reimbursed up to $44,000 for adopting a certified EHR as long as they have at least $24,000 in Medicare allowed charges per year and use their certified EHR in a meaningful way based on three broad requirements:

The EHR must be certified through the Office of the National Coordinator.

The EHR must provide electronic exchange of health information.

Eligible dermatologists must submit clinical quality measures and potentially other measures yet to be defined.

Beginning in 2011, objectives and measures defining meaningful use of EHR would be implemented over five years through three stages:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule in May 2014 which would allow providers to continue using electronic health records (EHR) certified for 2011 Edition certified EHR technology (CEHRT) or a combination of 2011 Edition and 2014 Edition CEHRT and report Stage 1 measures for Medicare meaningful use reporting in 2014.

AADA position on EHR and meaningful use

The American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA) continues to advocate for, educate, and engage members to ensure that the health information technology (HIT) needs and priorities of dermatology are being addressed and met.

Specifically, the AADA is actively engaged in representing the concerns of dermatology practices and patients in the development and implementation of HIT systems and incentive programs. The Academy remains concerned that some provisions of HIT implementation, as well as other Medicare reporting requirements, pose an undue burden on physicians to achieve compliance with the regulations.